Controlled Experiment Chapter 57

Two Missing One – 7

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Du Yusheng still had that group photo of those people on his phone.

He pulled it up and rubbed at their faces with his thumb. One cross, two crosses, one by one, he marked them out. In the end, only one face remained unmarked in the photo of seven. Du Yusheng rubbed his nose and dragged the photo into the garbage bin. One person after another, Du Yusheng suddenly felt a kind of numbness, as if he'd been dreading something for a long time, and now that it had finally happened, a strange sense of relief had set in, as though all the weight had been lifted.

So what if someone died?

Du Yusheng let out a cold laugh, fiddling with his fingers as he mused, Good, there is only one left now.

Du Yusheng lifted his head and looked at Li Yao.

The man was leaning against the car door, his expression neutral and unreadable. There was no hint of curiosity about what Du Yusheng had said on the phone, as if he already knew it all and had no need to ask.

It unsettled Du Yusheng.

"Only one left now."

Du Yusheng wanted to pull out his phone and show Li Yao, only to remember he'd stupidly deleted the photo himself. Still, Li Yao should know what he meant.

"Li Yao, tell me..." Du Yusheng's brow arched with a faint curve of a smile. "What do you think would happen if everyone in that photo ended up dead?"

Li Yao didn't answer his question. He simply looked at Du Yusheng, watched him unwind the bandage from around his head, watched him tie the removed bandage to the trunk of a nearby tree, and Li Yao even watched Du Yusheng tie it into a beautiful white bow.

"Why don't I just tell him you took your own life at home and be done with it?" Du Yusheng said with a bitter laugh, tugging at the bow.

"He" referred to the last person in the photo, Wang Zhe.

Du Yusheng let out a strange, sardonic laugh and mocked, "They're all going to die anyway, might as well save everyone the trouble of fucking protecting him. In the end, it's all the same. Not that any of them were decent to begin with. Bastards, the lot of them. They ruined a child's entire life, it's no wonder the one who survived hated them enough to kill them all."

Li Yao gripped the group photo he'd secretly taken with him, and spoke quietly, two words:

"Karmic retribution."

He spoke so softly that Du Yusheng thought he'd imagined it.

When it came down to it, Li Yao was a victim too.

To say he didn't hate them, how could that be possible?

He might not harm them himself, but kindness? That was something Li Yao simply couldn't offer them.

Du Yusheng sighed, chose a relatively decent-looking tree stump to sit on, and even though he knew it was uncomfortable, he switched sides after a while, moving back and forth. When he came out, he was in such a hurry that he didn't think to bring a piece of clothing. In this desolate, uninhabited wasteland, the wind howled without a single shelter in sight. Du Yusheng held his elbows tightly and kept sniffing. 

He figured something out.

"So, this is how it is now." Du Yusheng said, shifting his weight as half his backside had gone numb. He pointed at the stretch of desolate wasteland ahead. "Chen Xin is dead, and I found this in the computer at Zhao Liang's place. And now, Xu Yuan is dead too, and we've received this kind of message. It was the same last time, when Zhao Liang died. One to seven, seven digits, seven people. Behind each number, it's like there's an opaque box. When you open it, maybe it's empty, like with us, or maybe, it's like what I faced with Zhao Liang, or maybe, it's simply a kill command."

Du Yusheng looked at Li Yao and shifted on the spot again. "... That's how Chen Xin died. Was Xu Yuan also killed the same way?"

"... Only the killer can answer that. If you can meet him, you can ask him yourself," Li Yao replied, unscrewing a bottle of mineral water and gulping it down.

The ice-cold water soothed his throat and cleared his head a little.

"The killer, but how can I meet this living child?" Du Yusheng slowly stood up. He looked back at the tree stump he'd just been sitting on, then at the derelict house just a few steps away. "I'm in this game too, so if I went and killed the last person left in that photo right now, would I get to meet him? I really want to..."

Du Yusheng didn't finish the sentence, and Li Yao froze.

He looked at Du Yusheng, whose expression was resolute, deadly serious, so serious that Li Yao couldn't bring himself to think he was joking.

Then Du Yusheng suddenly burst into laughter.

He hadn't expected Li Yao to take it seriously.

Waving a hand, Du Yusheng clutched his stomach and hobbled toward the house. Even though Li Yao had already been inside, he still wanted to go in and have a look for himself.

Instead of going in with him, Lai Yao stood outside waiting for him.

What Du Yusheng had said wasn't wrong. The only one left alive in that photo was the last person Jing Mo wanted to kill. Whoever drew the death card in the next round, that card would kill him. But if someone were to kill the only person alive right now, who knows, Jing Mo might really appear.

He might want to see the person who had killed the one he most wanted dead.

And what if that person was Du Yusheng?

Li Yao shook his head, not wanting to think any further.

He really hoped Du Yusheng had just been joking. Please, let him not mean it.

Or maybe someone else would kill the last living one before Du Yusheng could act. Then Du Yusheng wouldn't go through with it.

But what if I killed that person before Du Yusheng did?

Li Yao stared at his empty hands. He suddenly realised that a single joke from Du Yusheng had sent him spiralling, thinking mad thoughts, mad enough to risk his own life on a gamble.

Ten minutes later, Du Yusheng strolled out of the house at a leisurely pace.

He was holding that empty photo frame in his hand.

"Do you know what photo was in here?" Du Yusheng lifted the object slightly so Li Yao could see it clearly.

Li Yao shook his head and said, "Wasn't it empty to begin with? I didn't pay attention."

Du Yusheng tilted his head with a faint smile. "It's been wiped. What did you see in it? Whose photo was it?"

Li Yao began to regret not having disposed of the frame altogether.

"Li Yao, you really are something," Du Yusheng said with a laugh. "The things you say, which ones are true and which ones are lies? Hmm? Sometimes I feel like there's something... unusual between us, but then at times, I really can't figure you out. Like this time, you knew exactly what happened to me at Zhao Liang's place, and yet you still came in my place. That gesture, I don't think I've misunderstood it, right?"

Li Yao didn't say anything and his face gave away no emotion at all, which disheartened Du Yusheng a little. He smacked his lips and said, "I know I've got a habit of overthinking things, but come on, who wouldn't want to believe something good is meant for them?"

As he spoke, Du Yusheng took a deep breath, trying to suppress the bitterness in his chest.

He gently lifted the frame again and asked, "What was really in here?" Du Yusheng added, "It was a photo of the killer, wasn't it?"

Li Yao called his name softly, "... Du Yusheng."

Du Yusheng shook his head and pulled out his phone, finding an image. "Can you tell me why you also went looking for Boss Lu that night?"

"......"

Du Yusheng gave a soft laugh or two. "Li Yao, I might be used to reading too much into things, but even I've only got so much patience, and this is as far as it goes."

Li Yao looked at Du Yusheng. He had the sudden urge to go over and touch the man's hair.

Reaching out his hand, Li Yao resisted his impulse.

"Wait until we're back," Li Yao said. "Once we're back, I'll tell you everything. Everything you want, I'll tell you. All right?"

=========

Xiao Bai had never felt so damned unlucky.

This run of bad luck had really gone too far. He shouldn't have agreed when Director Er transferred him over. And now look, he hadn't managed to protect Du Yusheng properly, murder cases were piling up one after another, and even after Du Yusheng had been suspended, the murders still hadn't stopped.

Xiao Bai rubbed the photo in his hand with a sigh. Did it really have to come to the day when everyone in the picture was dead?

What on earth am I doing all this for?

Xiao Bai pinned the photo to the whiteboard.

He pointed at the various photos above and said, "Xu Yuan was killed in an airport washroom. I pulled the surveillance footage from the airport. After he got off the plane, he didn't answer any phone calls or speak to anyone. It looked like a normal case of needing to go to the washroom, and then he was murdered there. The killer struck fast and viciously, barely giving Xu Yuan any chance to fight back. According to the report from the forensic team, Xu Yuan struggled for a bit, but it didn't make much difference. And just before he died, someone forced him to swallow a piece of paper with controlled experiment written on it."

Xiao Bai rubbed his nose and continued, "So I think this was done by the same person responsible for the deaths of Luo Daheng and Chen Xin."

Xiao Bai clicked the infrared pointer in his hand and moved to the next slide. "After we pulled the airport surveillance, we managed to get a clear shot of the killer's face. Apart from wearing a hat, he didn't bother with any other disguise, and after the killing, he showed no concern at all. This man's name is Zhao Hang. I looked into his records, he was involved in a homicide case in Huan Island a while back. Some of you might remember him, he was given a life sentence but had it reduced while serving time. When he killed Xu Yuan, he hadn't even been out a full year. Just like with the previous case, after the murder, he remained calm and composed. Surveillance at the airport shows he left and got into a taxi, and he got out in the busiest commercial district in Huan Island. For more details, we'll need to speak to the driver."

"Compared to other cases, finding the murderer in this case is much easier, the target is clear." Xiao Bai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "But based on past experience, I think Zhao Hang is just a weapon, it's still unclear who is holding the weapon."

Hearing that the suspect in the case had already been identified, most of the people present relaxed a little.

Having a lead was far better than groping in the dark.

A young woman from the same team tossed an evidence bag over to Xiao Bai and said, "This is the murder weapon left in the airport washroom." It was a piece of rope. "The fingerprints match the Zhao Hang you mentioned. So when Zhao Hang kills, he really doesn't hold back, he even left the murder weapon at the scene, brazen."

Xiao Bai assigned a few people to follow up on the taxi route while ordering others to issue a wanted notice immediately. Security checks were to be set up at every highway exit. The murder had only taken place a few hours ago, there was a slim chance that Zhao Hang had already left Huan Island, even if someone was helping him.

"Oh, right," Xiao Bai called out to someone, "What's the situation with Wang Zhe? He's the only one left alive in that photo, absolutely nothing can happen to him."

"Don't worry," the man waved his hand. "Even when he goes to the washroom, someone's with him. When he takes a shit, we're smelling it."

At that rather fragrant remark, Xiao Bai nodded and eased up a little.

Beside him was a set of traffic surveillance records sent over by the transport department to assist in the investigation. The last few pages were the footage Du Yusheng had requested, vehicle surveillance from near the parking lot that day.

Xiao Bai skimmed through the records. They included each car's make, model, colour, and even how long it had been parked, the name of each owner was also recorded.

On the very last line of car owners, he spotted a familiar name.

Li Yao.

=========

On the way back, Du Yusheng was a little distracted.

In truth, he was already exhausted, both physically and mentally.

But since the two of them had driven there in separate cars, they had no choice but to return the same way, one person per vehicle.

Du Yusheng really wanted to ask Li Yao something more on the road, but there simply wasn't an opportunity.

Gripping the steering wheel, he no longer felt that urgency and eagerness from earlier to see Li Yao. Just a few hours had passed, yet his entire mindset had shifted. Wasn't my meaning just now already obvious enough? Du Yusheng touched the corner of his lips, Clearly, I'd been overthinking things.

How frustrating.

Du Yusheng had actually been foolish enough to think Li Yao might have feelings for him.

Well, now I know, it was all just me spinning wild fantasies in my head.

Still, more than that, what preoccupied Du Yusheng was that sentence Li Yao had said, "Once we're back, I'll tell you everything."

What exactly is he going to tell me?

Will it be something too much to accept?

Will he say, actually, you're a complete idiot?

Up ahead, there was a service station. Du Yusheng had drunk too much water and caught a bit of a chill, so he was desperate for the washroom.

Li Yao's car was nowhere in sight now, but since they were both heading the same way, it wasn't like they wouldn't meet again. So Du Yusheng simply pulled into the service area and went in to take a good, long bathroom break. When he came back out, he bought a hot sausage from the snack kiosk.

Being suspended wasn't so bad, at least I don't have to deal with the fallout of Xu Yuan's death.

As he sat and caught his breath, someone appeared in front of him.

Du Yusheng looked up and froze.

The man who'd parted from him only ten or so minutes earlier was standing in front of him again.

"Li Yao?" Du Yusheng glanced around. The front of Li Yao's car was facing him. Though the plate number wasn't visible, the vehicle looked familiar, and it was parked right next to his own. It looked like it had only just arrived.

Puzzled, Du Yusheng asked, "But... this is the highway, how did you manage to turn around?"

Li Yao smiled with his lips pressed together. "I've been behind you this whole time. You didn't notice?"

Du Yusheng blinked. He hadn't remembered Li Yao being behind him, Wasn't he driving ahead all along? He watched as Li Yao sat down right beside him.

His shoelaces weren't tied properly, hanging loose, like he'd only just put the shoes on.

Li Yao looked at him, seemingly in a very good mood.

"I was going to head straight back, but then I suddenly wanted to talk to you."

Du Yusheng chewed on the sausage in his mouth and said, "Hmm?" 

Li Yao walked over to open the passenger side door of his car, gesturing for him to get in, and said with a smile, "Let me take you somewhere. Shall we go?"

Du Yusheng looked back at his own car.

"We'll be back anyway," Li Yao said with a smile. "We're... we'll be coming back either way."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Angel: Okay, this time I'm properly confident that this is Jing Mo...

Angel: Hi guys, I'm back! Thanks for waiting~ Taking the week off was definitely the right choice, I got lots of rest and didn't look at anything to do with translating this week. But now we are back to our regularly scheduled programing.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: June 21, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 31, 2025 by Angel